Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

the rise of the pontic steppe scythians
a pioneering element, originating in eastern Central Asia and following broadly the
same route to the west a hundred and fifty years or so later.
For migrating nomads the west offered many opportunities. Across the Volga, to
the south-west, lay the steppe of north Caucasus, in particular the lush valley of the
Kuban River, giving way to the more wooded slopes of the Caucasus range. The grassland
was good but command of the region also offered the opportunity of being able
to mount raids to the south, through or around the mountains, to engage with the sedentary
states of Asia Minor. For others crossing the Don there was the Pontic steppe
stretching around the Black Sea as far as the Danube delta. Here was a familiar landscape,
congenial to warrior pastoralists, made even more attractive both by the proximity
of Greek colonies scattered along the Black Sea coast and by the forest steppe to
the north inhabited by agro-pastoralists. By occupying the Pontic steppe the Scythian
warlords had direct access to the two things they needed most to sustain their social
hierarchy, grain from the forest steppe to supplement their diet and a supply of exotic
luxury goods from the Greek world with which to display and manipulate status. It
was not long before the Scythian elite began to extend their power to include much
of the forest steppe while some of the more enterprising individuals pushed further
west, through the Carpathians into Transylvania and the Great Hungarian Plain.
The North Caucasus and Asia Minor
Herodotus, looking back on the early Scythian period, offers a somewhat conflated
narrative suggesting that when the Scythians swept in, some chose to occupy land
previously settled by the Kimmerians while others, moving along the western shore
of the Caspian Sea around the eastern end of the Caucasus, took up residence in the
land of the Medes on the border of the Assyrian empire. From here they became
involved in the political upheavals gripping the states of Asia Minor: ‘Their insolence
and oppression spread ruin on every side.’ One Scythian force moved through the
Levant and threatened Egypt but was bought off. Eventually, after 28 years, they were
outwitted by the Medes and forced to return to their home north of the Caucasus.
Herodotus links the ousting of the Kimmerians and the march of the Scythians
into Asia Minor in single narrative but in all probability the chronology was far more
extended and there may have been little direct connection between the two events.
The archaeological evidence suggests that Scythians were settling in the north Caucasus
in the second half of the eighth century and it may have been several generations
before they had begun to explore the prospects of Asia Minor. Limited raids
with the warriors returning home in the winter may eventually have given way to
more extended periods away from home until some war bands decided to stay and
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